Chinese President Xi Jinping said China would stop building coal-fired power plants abroad, in a public commitment to redirect the country’s huge engineering industry away from adding to a source of global pollution. The move could sharply limit the worldwide expansion of coal, which produces significant heat-trapping emissions. Beijing has faced pressure from the U.S., the European Union, and environmental groups for having continued to finance and build coal-fired power plants in many developing countries, even as it said it would cut greenhouse emissions at home. Coal is central to China’s energy mix, and it is the world’s biggest producer and consumer of the resource. Xi has stated that China will begin cutting its coal consumption after 2026.
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